Everlasting Hope
by corneroffandom
Summary: After searching for a long time, Razer finally gets the reunion he'd been desperate for.


_Aya. Aya... __**Aya!**_

Razer sits up with a gasp, his face tight with memories and soaked in a cool sweat. As he opens his eyes and looks around the simple quarters he'd claimed as his own for the night while traveling from planet to planet to look for the lost AI who'd slowly overtaken his soul, his love, his everything, he shakes his head. Her death, rebirth, and second death had been a constant torture for him every night, but he holds onto the only thing he has left to keep him going: Hope. Belief that the girl hadn't died, had survived as she had many times in the past. There had been many miracles since he'd joined Hal Jordan and Kilowag, he himself feeling like a bit of one, that he had lived through the war against Atrocitus, and everything else since then.

And so to vow to find her had been the simplest decision he'd made ever in his life, holding no doubt within him that his love is alive out there somewhere. He had witnessed what love could do, between Hal Jordan and his Earth girlfriend, and everything else. He has no doubt, with time, he will find her. The last thing on his mind is giving up, especially now. And so, aware that sleep won't find him again tonight, he makes his way to his feet and looks up at the universe from the latest planet he's decided to check. "Wait for me, Aya. I will not give up."

Time passes, sometimes slow and sometimes disturbing fast, and he wonders how far in the universe he'll have to go to find some hint of his love but knows he'll go to the end- or the beginning- of the world just to find the girl who had slowly stolen his heart in ways he hadn't thought was possible after finding his wife dead, because Aya had... accepted him, flaws and all, and had still found it important to sacrifice herself repeatedly for him, for the Green Lanterns. He would always love Ilana, but he knows she'd want him to continue living, find happiness. And right now, his happiness is... alone somewhere, waiting for him, so on he searches.

Sometimes he runs into Hal Jordan and Kilowag, the latter becoming surprisingly affectionate towards him after all they'd been through, and hugging him to the point of almost collapsing his ribcage every time they meet back up, and they work on small missions together, which feel _almost_ like old times, if not for the visibly missing female influence in their dialogue. "Any luck?" Hal asks every time, to which Razer just shakes his head grimly, and that's the closest they come to discuss Aya until the next time they come across each other again. He wonders how he can come upon the Green Lanterns so very often, no matter how far in the universe he goes, but he has yet to find a trace of his love. If it means that this has truly been a fool's errand, and she's truly just... somehow, indescipherably, gone. It's not fair, it makes no sense that he should finally find her, and then lose her, after everything, but...

He forces himself not to dwell on it, not to give up hope. The bright blue glow of the ring thrums in time with his heartbeat as he travels on, searching for her, encouraging him on this road he's taken so very long ago. Missions come and go, people happy to see him arrive or happier to see him go, his determination to continue on the only thing a constant presence in his life. Until one day, he staggers into the quarters set aside for him to get some rest after saving yet another planet from some insane dictator who'd been determined to hold its people hostage in some sort of slave trade operation, tired and worn down to the point that just walking five steps from the door to his bed proves too much for him and he finds himself listing to the left, about to faceplant, when...

Familiar arms scoop him out of thin air and support him, easing him onto the bed with soothing touches and soft murmurs, and he melts into the bedding, feeling more comfortable than he has in months, maybe years. "Aya," he murmurs distantly, her name a balm on his soul.

"I'm here, Razer," a familiarly sweet, but slightly stiff, voice greets him, soft fingers massaging along his shoulders and down his back. "I have missed you, my love."

His eyes shoot open and they stare at each other, his now blue eyes glowing into hers. "No, no..." He touches her shoulder, lets his fingers graze her face. The face of two women he'd loved, very differently, but so similarly. "Aya?"

"Yes." She stares at him, smiling. "Razer. My love."

"You... you survived." As she nods, touching his face gently, he releases a healing breath. He doesn't know how, but it's her, and she's completely herself once more, none of the previous horrors visible on her, her touch, her voice, her eyes the same as each and every memory he has of her. He smiles, feeling almost giddy. "I never lost hope," he tells her quietly, cupping her face and peering deep into her eyes.

She smiles gently at him and rests a hand on his ring, examining the blue energy powering it. "I see that," she breathes out, her eyes gleaming with love, an expression he'd missed so much in the last few months, years, lives. "Thank you, Razer."

He wants to ask so many questions, _how, where, when, who,_ but too much time has been wasted between the two of them due to doubts and questions and his own blind stupidity so he swallows them all down, cupping her face and pulling her in for the unrushed kiss he'd been desperate for for longer than he'd realized, reluctantly pulling away finally to stare her in the face. "I love you, Aya."

"I love you too," she whispers back, before melting back against him in a life-affirming embrace.


End file.
